A Happy New Year

It feels good to be off to a happy new year.  The joy of being off of work for a couple of weeks and having time to play with kids, cook, knit, and make art is really wonderful.

The informal Artist’s Trading Cards swap got off to a great start despite short notice — I only dreamed it up a couple of days in advance.  It’s going to continue on for the next little bit to give more artists the chance to play.  The list of participating artists is now the first list  on the   left-hand column of this blog.  If you are interested in joining, scroll down through the next few posts for the details and then email the link for your ATCs to Joyce at Elliebelly dot com.

I finally got in a bit of post-holiday knitting time, and used it to add onto the silk feather and fan scarf, which I’m absolutely entranced with.  I seem to be doing a lot of knitting for myself right now and this scarf is surely going no where else but around my neck.

I also got the chance to return my studio to normal (as opposed to the cleanliness and order that came with my unbelievable willingness to look foolish for HGTV viewers all over America TV debut in early December.)  For those of you who were concerned by the order, it is there no more.

Is there a name for artists afflicted with ADHD?  Or is it ok to simply think of myself as a versatile multi-tasker?  I’m working on two different shrines, as well as this piece which I have starting painting the background layers on….

and this piece, which is going to be a fabric portrait collage of my baby.

The "make a wish" fragment fits Ollie perfectly, but I had it in the studio because I used it to make a wand for my friend Joanne.  It took me a while to figure out how to felt the handle of the wand.  I ended up pre-felting some roving while still in sliver form, and then wet felting it, using a felting needle to tack it a little bit, before adding the curly mohair in via needle felting.  I hope she’s going to like it!

For my swan song before I go back to work tomorrow, I’m dyeing some silk/merino yarn tonight.  It looks like it would be perfect for a Clapotis, which just happens to be on my short list of new knitting projects (I’m the only knitter in the world who still hasn’t made one), although I had plans to use some pretty Debbie Bliss teal blue alpaca-silk yarn.   Decisions, decisions.